Fiji

FIJI Post-Disaster Needs Assessment
Making use of data available from FBOS 84 and data derived from adjusted modelling undertaken by the 2010 Pacific
Catastrophic Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI), the population of 182,015 households was calculated to
be living in a total housing stock of some 146,292 units in 2015, indicating a country-wide occupancy rate of around 1.3
households per building although this was not uniform throughout the country. In a number of provinces in the Northern
and Eastern Divisions which are experiencing population out-migration, occupancy rates were below 1, whereas in
the faster growing Central and Western Divisions, and particularly in the Suva-Nausori and Nadi-Ba urban corridors,
occupancy rates were higher at 1.45 per housing unit, indicating that the supply of affordable housing has not kept up with
population growth. 85 In response to unmet demand and opportunities for supplementing household incomes, according to
the 2008/2009 HIES, around one in three families in urban areas rented out at least one room in their house and, deriving
supplementary income from this activity.
The country’s land on which housing is built is codified into three main tenure forms, namely iTaukei (native) land
(87 percent), state land (6 percent) and freehold (7 percent). According to the 2011 National Housing Policy, around 63
percent of households lived on freehold or leasehold land and a further 29 percent lived in village settlements where they
are afforded secure tenure through their community status (Ministry of Local Government, Urban Development, Housing
and Environment, 2011). The high overall security of tenure is reflected in both the quality of the housing stock and median
house size. Table 44 shows the wall materials of the pre-Winston housing stock by division.
Table 44: Housing Stock by Type of Wall Material and Distribution by Division
Division
Concrete
Timber frame/
Wood
Timber frame/
Tin iron
Bure
Makeshift/
Other
Total
No. Units
Central 25,092 12,102 17,676 672 518 56,060
Eastern 2,901 4,691 3,333 207 83 11,215
Northern 2,564 7,122 5,683 539 379 16,287
Western 27,271 9,600 23,660 1,409 790 62,730
Total 57,828 33,515 50,352 2,827 1,770 146,292
Source: MLGHE
The above table indicates that approximately 57 percent of houses consist of reasonably well constructed timber frame
with either wood or tin iron cladding, and a further 40 percent of houses are made of concrete/masonry construction.
Over the years, the use of traditional bure housing has given way to concrete and fixed timber frame construction, which
lends itself to easier fitting of plumbing and electricity supplies. The Fijian vernacular bure house type currently constitutes
only 3 percent of the overall housing stock, although accounting for 10 percent of houses in the Northern Division and
7 percent in the Eastern Division. Drawing on the digitized building footprints collated under PCRAFI, the median floor
area of Fiji’s houses are large, around 80m 2 (concrete) and 60m 2 (timber frame), reflecting a mature housing stock that
has been incrementally consolidated by home owners over a number of years. According to a number of construction
industry experts consulted during the course of the PDNA, ‘like-for-like’ house replacement costs would be in the order of
F$750/m 2 for concrete houses and F$650/m 2 for timber frame housing, equivalent to a median house value of F$60,000
(concrete) to F$40,000 (timber frame).
However, the housing characteristics for the estimated 15 percent of the population living in some 240 informal settlements
(primarily located in and around the Lami-Suva-Nausori and Nadi-Lautoka-Ba urban corridors and in Labasa town) point
to less permanent structures. The settlements are far from homogenous, but based on a 2015 survey of 31 informal
settlements, 86 only 10 percent of houses were concrete and the remaining 90 percent were timber frame and tin iron of
varying construction quality and, in many cases, built using recycled materials. The lower quality overall in comparison
to the wider housing stock is likely to reflect variables, such as a higher incidence of poverty found within many informal
settlements and uncertainty regarding tenure security, in particular in those settlements located on privately-owned land. 87
Within the constraints of available statistics, determining the proportion of women headed households who are home or
land owners is not possible. While women’s participation in most types of economic activities is not restricted in Fiji, iTaukei
women have limited rights to inherit customary land or to own immovable property and, similarly, patriarchal inheritance
preferences tend to dominate the freehold and leasehold markets. However, under Section 35 of the Bill of Rights in the
84
FBOS, 2011; FBOS, 2007.
85
The concentration of the housing deficit in urban rather than rural areas is also reflected in the fact that although urban areas account
for 51 percent of the population, they account for only 46.3 percent of the housing stock and, by corollary, the 49 percent of the population
which is rural occupies 53.7 percent of the housing stock.
86
Informal settlement survey carried out by the People’s Community Network, November 2015.
87
Informal settlements have grown on all categories of land in Fiji. The settlements on state land (including settlements established 40 or
more years ago) tend to be located within town boundaries; settlements on iTaukei land are found within urban areas and also in less
regulated peri-urban areas; and a smaller number of settlements are on freehold land.
Tropical Cyclone Winston, February 20, 2016
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